View full sizeWashington Township, N.J., police have Ralph A. Atkinson in custody in connection with a homicide victim discovered Wednesday in Washington.Courtesy photo

Atkinson was known to township police from previous domestic violence reports involving Graf-White, said Washington Township, New Jersey, police Chief James McDonald. The two had a dating relationship, authorities said.

Ruthann Disotell, who met Graf-White at an area church, said the borough woman had been trying to distance herself from what Disotell described as a physically and emotionally abusive relationship.

"I knew that she wasn't in a good relationship and she knew it, too. She was going to end their communication but ... ," Disotell said before her voice trailed off.

Police responded at 4:13 p.m. Wednesday to Graf-White's 20 W. Stewart St. home after her ex-husband reported a suspicious death, Warren County Prosecutor Richard Burke said today during an afternoon news conference inside the Washington Township municipal building.

Authorities say Atkinson used a combination of blunt and sharp instruments to inflict multiple wounds on Graf-White in the early hours of Wednesday. The Morris County Medical Examiner's Office that serves Warren County planned an autopsy.

A 12-hour, multi-agency investigation culminated in the arrest of Atkinson, whose last known address was in the first block of Ramseyburg Road in Columbia, Knowlton Township. He is scheduled to make his first appearance Friday afternoon in New Jersey Superior Court in Belvidere.

Cycle of abuse

Disotell said Graf-White, who lived with her two young girls, was stuck in a cycle of abuse, unable to completely sever ties with a difficult past.

But Maggie, as she was known, tried to overcome the obstacles. Graf-White was taking computer training courses and hoped to find an office job to "make a way" for herself and her two daughters living with her, Disotell said.

"It's hard to watch this kind of an ending happen," she said.

Disotell described Graf-White as a loving mom and said she was very supportive of her children.

"She wanted better for them," she said. "She wanted them to do well in school and become something and she was very proud of them."

Burke said the two children are in the care of the New Jersey Department of Child Protection and Permanency.

"My heart breaks for them," Disotell said.

No motive yet

Authorities have not released a motive in the murder. Atkinson was in jail today and cooperating with authorities "as much as can be expected," Burke said.

Donnetia Rabb, a neighbor of White-Graf's and a mother of two, attended authorities' news conference today and said she wanted to know whether it was an isolated incident or whether there was reason for the community to be alarmed.

Rabb, who has lived in the borough 11 years, described the neighborhood as quiet and said she had never heard of anything like this happening before there.

"(I was) very, very shocked and very concerned," she said.

Atkinson, who is being held in lieu of $1 million cash bail, has a history of weapons charges, court records indicate.

In 1995, he was charged in Camden County with unlawful possession of a weapon and threatening violence. Authorities later dropped the most serious charges after Atkinson pleaded guilty to a disorderly persons offense. He also served 180 days in jail after a 2000 weapons conviction in Camden County.

Burke and McDonald today both offered their condolences to the family of Graf-White.

They also commended the work of the seven departments involved in the investigation, led by police in Washington Township and the Warren County Prosecutor's Office.

"This was a 12-hour investigation that ended in an arrest, which is outstanding," McDonald said.